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Monday, August 24, 2015

This Date in Rock Music History: August 25

1956: The Platters spent another week at #1 on the R&B chart with the classic "My Prayer".1957: Paul Anka topped the U.K. chart with "Diana".1958: Jimmy Clanton had the top R&B song with "Just A Dream".1958: Tommy Edwards moved from #96 to #40 on this date with "It's All In The Game".

1958: It was only the fourth chart in Billboard history and already we had our third #1 song--"Little Star" by the Elegants. Domenico Modugno fell with "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Bul (Volare)" while the Everly Brothers got in on the fun with "Bird Dog", which moved from 17-3.1960: The Shadows had the first of five #1's in the U.K. with "Apache".

1961: The Beatles played at the Cavern Club in Liverpool in the afternoon, then hopped aboard the riverboat M.V. Royal Iris in Merseyside to open for Acker Bilk, one of four "riverboat shuffles" that the group took part in.1962: She had written many songs for other artists, but on this date Carole King's first single "It Might As Well Rain Until September" debuted on the chart.

1962: "The Loco-Motion", written by Stanley, Idaho's Carole King, became the new #1 R&B song.

1962: Peter, Paul & Mary moved from 90 to 59 with "If I Had A Hammer".1962: Little Eva reached #1 after nine weeks with "The Loco-Motion". Neil Sedaka feel from his perch with "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" while Bobby Darin was up to 3 with "Things". Ray Charles edged up with "You Don't Know Me" while Tommy Roe had the song "Sheila", which moved from 12 to 5. The rest of the Top 10: "Roses Are Red" from Bobby Vinton, Claudine Clark with "Party Lights", Elvis Presley was up to 8 with "She's Not You", Ray Stevens had song #9--"Ahab, The Arab" and Dion fell with "Little Diane".1965: The movie Wild on the Beach, with appearances from Sonny & Cher and Sandy Nelson, opened in theaters.1967: Brian Wilson joined the Beach Boys in concert at the Honolulu International Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i after taking two years off from touring.1970: Elton John made his debut in the United States, opening for David Ackles at the Troubadour in Hollywood, California. Neil Diamond introduced Elton to the crowd.

1971: Led Zeppelin played at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, Texas.1973: Butch Trucks, drummer for the Allman Brothers Band, broke his leg in a car crash near Macon, Georgia.1973: Faces, Status Quo, and Lindsfarne performed on the second day of the annual National Jazz, Blues and Rock Festival in Reading, England.1973: Donny Osmond had the #1 U.K. song with "Young Love".1973: The Stories climbed all the way to #1 with "Brother Louie", leapfrogging the Wings hit "Live And Let Die". Diana Ross slipped with her former #1 "Touch Me In The Morning". Marvin Gaye ("Let's Get It On") and Maureen McGovern ("The Morning After") swapped places. The rest of the Top 10: "Delta Dawn" from Helen Reddy, "Get Down" by Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose" by Tony Orlando & Dawn moved from 14 to 8, Charlie Daniels was still at 9 with "Uneasy Rider" and Jim Croce's former #1 smash "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" was song #10.

1975: Bruce Springsteen released the album Born to Run on Columbia Records.1975: Elton John performed for the first of three nights at the Troubadour in Los Angeles to raise $150,000 for the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA.1976: Frankie Avalon debuted his four-week variety series, Easy Does It, on CBS-TV.

1976: Boston released their epic debut album on Epic Records (pun intended). (Note: some websites list the debut as August 5. While there are no credible sources for its release, our best research indicates that it was released August 25.)1977: Helen Reddy was appointed as a member of the California State Parks Commission.1979: Cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy, Inner Circle, and Bram Tchaikovsky performed on the second day of the U.K. Reading Festival in Reading, England.1979: The #1 song in the U.K. was "We Don't Talk Anymore" by Cliff Richard, his first #1 in 11 years.1979: Elton John took over at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart with "Mama Can't Buy You Love".

1979: If you like hard rock, you have this song to thank, for it may have saved the future of the genre. On this date, "My Sharona" by the Knack became the first rock song to reach #1 since "Blinded By The Light" back on February 19 of 1975. There was nothing remotely of a heavier sound in between to reach #1.1979: Get the Knack by the Knack was the #1 album in a pretty good list. The former #1 Breakfast in America by Supertramp moved back up to #2. The Cars' follow-up Candy-O moved to 3 while Bad Girls by Donna Summer was at 4. The rest of the Top 10: I Am by Earth, Wind & Fire, Discovery from ELO, the Charlie Daniels Band had #7 with Million Mile Reflections, the Soundtrack to "The Kids Are Alright" by the Who, Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Rust Never Sleeps and John Stewart had #10 with Bombs Away Dream Babies.

1984: "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr. was the new #1 on the R&B chart.1984: Purple Rain by Prince spent a fourth week at #1 on the Album chart. Sports from Huey Lewis & the News moved back up to 2 after 47 weeks of release. Bruce Springsteen switched places after 10 weeks of release with Born in the U.S.A. but Private Dancer from Tina Turner was up strong. The rest of the Top 10: the great Cars album Heartbeat City was at 5, the Soundtrack to "Ghostbusters" came in sixth, the Jacksons' farewell album Victory Can't Slow Down, Ratt's Out of the Cellar could not move past 9 and the Pointer Sisters entered the Top 10 with Break Out.1988: Metallica released the album And Justice for All on Elektra Records.1989: Simon LeBon of Duran Duran and his wife Yasmin announced the birth of daughter Amber Rose.1990: "Come Back To Me" by Janet Jackson was the new #1 Adult Contemporary song.

1990: M.C. Hammer spent an 11th non-consecutive week at #1 on the Album chart with Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. Wilson Phillips climbed up to #2 with their fantastic self-titled release while Poison was at 3 with Flesh & Blood. Mariah Carey remained at #4 with her debut. The rest of the Top 10: Anita Baker's fine Compositions at 5, Bell BivDeVoe with Poison, Keith Sweat came in at #8 with I'll Give All My Love to You, Madonna with the Soundtrack to "I'm Breathless" and the "Pretty Woman" Soundtrack.1994: The marriage between Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley was formally dissolved with their divorce.1994: Jimmy Buffett's light plane flipped after taking off in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He swam safely to shore.

1994: Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, formerly of Led Zeppelin, reunited in London to record the "Unplugged" show on MTV. The show was called "Unledded". (Note: some websites falsely say the show was called "Unleaded", but the album was entitled 'Unledded'.)1994: Take That began a tour of the U.K. with three nights at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow, Scotland.1995: The U.K. Reading Festival has always been able to attract top talent and this year was no exception. Green Day, the Smashing Pumpkins and Beck opened the festivities for the three-day event.1999: Lionel Richie played a concert in front of the Sphinx in Egypt.1999: Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, bass guitarist, left the group Oasis. McGuigan was the final founding member of the group to leave. (Note: several websites report he left on August 24, but according to the newspapers 'The Independent', 'The Guardian' and 'The Mirror', he left on August 25.)1999: Rob Fisher, keyboardist and songwriter of Naked Eyes and Climie Fisher, died of cancer in Surrey, England at the age of 42.

2000: Jack Nitzsche, who produced for the Rolling Stones and Neil Young and also co-wrote "Up Where We Belong" for the classic movie An Officer and a Gentleman, died of cardiac arrest brought on by a recurring bronchial infection in Hollywood, California at the age of 63.

2001: Aaliyah and eight others were killed when their plane crashed in Marsh Harbor in the Abacos islands of the northern Bahamas. The cause of the crash was engine failure due to the plane being overloaded.2002: Eva Cassidy had the #1 U.K. album with Imagine.2006: Tom Hamilton, bassist for Aerosmith, began recovering from tongue cancer after undergoing seven weeks of radiation treatment. (Note: some websites say that Hamilton underwent treatment on this date. According to the newspaper 'The Washington Post', Hamilton announced on August 25 that he was recovering from radiation treatment, which he had been undergoing for seven weeks. Some websites report that he had treatment from tongue and throat cancer on this date. According to the sources mentioned above, it was only for tongue cancer. The cancer later spread to his throat, which forced Hamilton to undergo non-invasive surgery for in 2009.)2006: Franz Ferdinand, the Kaiser Chiefs, Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, and the Subways opened the entertainment at the three-day Reading Festival in Leeds and Reading, England.2007: Arthur Brown accidentally set himself on fire while singing the song "Fire" in Lewes, Sussex, England.2007: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Arcade Fire, and Panic! at the Disco performed on the second day of the Carling Weekend Reading Festival in Leeds and Reading, England.2010: An inside look at the early years of the Beatles was unveiled in Liverpool, England at the University of Liverpool's Victoria Gallery and Museum. Photographs taken by Astrid Kirchherr, the former fiancé of original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, were displayed, including pictures of the group on vacation in Tenerife and the making of the movie A Hard Day's Night.

Born This Day:1943: Walter Williams of the O'Jays was born in Canton, Ohio. (Note: several websites report Williams was born in 1942. According to Walter's official website and his official Facebook page, he was born in 1943.)1947: Keith Tippett, pianist with King Crimson, was born in Bristol, England.1949: Gene Simmons, songwriter and bass guitarist of KISS,was born in Haifa, Israel.1951: Rob Halford, lead singer of Judas Priest, was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, England. (Note: 'Billboard' and MTV report Halford was born in Birmingham, England, and some websites claim he was born in Walsall, Staffordshire, England. Sutton was born at his aunt's home in Sutton Coldfield, and raised in Walsall, according to the book 'The Story of Judas Priest: Defenders of the Faith' by Neil Daniels.)1951: James Warren, singer and bassist of the Korgis ("Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime"), was born in Bristol, Somerset, England.1952: Geoff Downs, keyboardist and songwriter of the Buggles, Yes and Asia, was born in Stockport, Cheshire, England.1954: Elvis Costello (Declan Patrick MacManus), singer and husband of the great Diana Krall, was born in Paddington, Middlesex, England. (Note: several websites make the mistake of saying Costello was born in Paddington, London, with London being the county Paddington is currently a part of. In 1954, the time of Elvis's birth, Paddington was in the county of Middlesex, so you will never see an official birth certificate from 1954 with Paddington listed in the county of London.)1962: Vivian Campbell, elite guitarist of Def Leppard and Whitesnake, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.1966: DJ Terminator X (Norman Rogers) of Public Enemy

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About Me

I worked at KFXD-AM & FM in Boise, Idaho for 10 years, serving as Research Director, Music Director and Sports Director among other things. During this time, I researched, organized and produced several music specials including The Top 500 Songs of All-Time and The Top 100 Artists of the Rock Era.
I started Inside The Rock Era in 2011 to counter the sea of misinformation about rock music in general and specifically which songs, albums and artists were the most successful. Since that time, Inside The Rock Era has received over one million page views.
I am the author of two books, The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era* and The Top 100 Female Artists of the Rock Era*, both available in softcover and Kindle on Amazon and on this website.